As Long as You Follow
by Atana
Summary: Young Severus Snape finally gets up enough courage to ask a Ravenclaw to the dance. Why is Spirals losing it?


DISCLAIMER: You thought I was through with it, weren't you? HA! This isn't the last you'll see of Sonia 'Teasey' Stellamaris! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  
  
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Snips and Spirals Fanfic: "As Long as You Follow"

Text by Lady Tesser

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Severus Snape was the first up and out of bed Saturday morning, beating everyone else to the showers and making sure to wash his hair at least five times before being satisfied that it was clean enough. He took time to comb his hair, parting it in the exact center so that it fell straight down the sides of his face.  
  
Sev glanced at the leather hair ties in his bath kit ...  
  
Black, blue, brown, green, or silver?  
  
He put the kit away, deciding to leave his hair down. He would still be in public, and he was not quite comfortable with having most of his hair off his face around anyone else but Martis. Oh, he would have to pull his hair back with Sonia, but not yet. Perhaps for the Valentine's Dance.  
  
He stared into the mirror, brushing his hair back behind his ears. "'Sonia, I would be honored if you would go to the Valentine's Dance with me'. Perhaps honor is too strong a word? 'Sonia, I would be glad to accompany you to the Valentine's Dance'. No, still too formal. 'Sonia, would you please go with me to the Valentine's Dance'? Sounds like I'm begging. 'Sonia, I would like to take you to the dance on Valentine's Day'. Damn. What sounds right?" He struck a affectedly-casual pose and said in a deep voice, "'Hey, babe, you and me. Saturday.'" At which point he made a face at himself. "Bloody hell - that sounds like something a cheap gutter punk or Potter would say."  
  
A voice behind him said, "How about: 'Spirals, I'm taking you to the dance instead - wear something low-cut and edible'."  
  
Sev turned around to see Evan Ryper grinning at him. He blushed bright red and glared at the Sixth-Year Prefect. "Shut up!"  
  
"Careful there, Snape. I'm loaning you my robe and cloak - the fact that I'm doing that and you're going off to make time with some other House's member somewhat sticks in my craw." Evan claimed a sink and washed his face.  
  
Sev combed his hair down again. "I appreciate the loan, but I'm not letting Slytherin politics run what little tiny bit of social life I have."  
  
Evan toweled his face dry and said, "This isn't Slytherin politics, it's just my own personal prejudices. I think you and Martis are good for each other; you've certainly become more bearable as a roommate since she arrived."  
  
"Only friends," Sev muttered.  
  
"Yeah, right. And I'm the Grand Mugwump."  
  
Snape turned a bit away - this almost felt like friendship, he thought. And that made him uncomfortable.  
  
A little while until breakfast. And he had more rehearsing to do.  
  
----------  
  
Britomartis Vox was not too enthused about the day ahead. She knew the entire reason they had tried to wash his robe last night was because Sev did not want to look like his normal self when he asked Sonia 'Pale Goddess' Stellamaris to that stupid Valentine's Dance.  
  
Of course she knew that was what he planned all along. Especially since he gave her vague excuses for not working together on their DADA essays for McElwain while the dance went on. He was planning on being at that dance.  
  
Guys were such pigs when they think they're going to Get Some.  
  
It irritated her that Snips was a normal guy in that respect. He was going to get burned, she just knew it, but she could not interfere. He had to figure it out himself. It reeked being the sensible one.  
  
She had made her way down to the common room to wait for him so they could go to breakfast together.  
  
"He's gone."  
  
"Gone?" Martis repeated. "Gone where?"  
  
"To breakfast," Evan told her as he stood before the community mirror and finished combing his short-cropped black hair. "He had an early start this morning."  
  
She rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses and made an unladylike sound. "If he wanted a girlfriend so damn much, he could have asked me to find him one. I know what kind of trollops, teases, and users this school has. My Snips is too delicate for the wiles of most of the female gender."  
  
"Yes," Evan agreed. "Nightly talks in the dorm made that very clear." He grinned. "Listen, since he's trying to go to the dance with her, why don't you go with me and we can throw water balloons at them?"  
  
Martis burst into giggles. "Evan, for preaching honor, loyalty, and dignity to the House of Slytherin, you surprise me at times."  
  
"I'm not above the occasional practical joke, Spirals. You would understand such things." He smirked. "Of course, an idea did come to mind as I saw him getting ready."  
  
She stepped in front of the mirror and checked her twin-braids over her shoulders. "I shudder to think, but what do you have in mind?"  
  
Evan, a head-and-a-half taller than she, leaned close to her so that his face was level with hers in the mirror. Martis knew Evan could be quite a charmer when he wanted to be. He held her shoulders as he spoke toward her reflection. "We can make Snips think you're having a torrid affair with me to make him jeal- will you stop laughing?"  
  
Martis draped her arms around him and continued chortling hysterically. "Nothing against you, Evan! Really, there isn't! But I can't bring myself to think of faking an 'affair' with you." She giggled, pulling away.  
  
"Well, I got shot down by a Second-Year," he chuckled. "Any particular reason?"  
  
"You bear a passing resemblance to my brother Klemendis, only paler."  
  
"Reasonable excuse." He bowed his head. "'Pass' on the idea then. But I will escort you to breakfast since your usual companion is unavailable."  
  
"Partner-in-crime, you mean. Sure. But no kissing."  
  
He snorted a laugh. "My darling Brittany Valkaria would slam me into the wall if I even considered it."  
  
----------  
  
Breakfast was quiet. There were no giggles and plotting and nasty smirks from the Snips and Spirals contingent since one part had finished early and was already in the library doing his homework.  
  
He had a little while before the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor match, and he may as well get some work done. Besides, if he sat perfectly still, his stupid oil-well head would stay in check. Although it was odd - after those five washings, his hair felt almost normal, like Martis'. He wondered how she was able to keep all that hair clean ...  
  
Sev was nearly startled out of his skin when Sonia Stellamaris settled next to him, opening her notebook. "Good morning, Severus," she cooed softly. "I didn't expect to see you so early."  
  
He discreetly pressed his hand to his chest, trying to control the frenzy beating his heart was doing due to being surprised. "Needed to get some Potions work done."  
  
"How convenient - I needed to work out my last question on that study guide." She smiled serenely at him. "You seem a little jumpy today."  
  
"Um, still recovering from hunting down those robes last night." [Stupid, stupid! What a way to start!]  
  
"That was rather silly. But I suppose since you have such a busy mind, you weren't paying attention."  
  
"No," he admitted shyly. [Gods, she smells nice - rose perfume!]  
  
[But nothing else. Only rose perfume. Certainly a change from olive oil and Mediterranean spices and salty, musky Girl skin...]  
  
Sev shoved the thought away. The gorgeous Sonia was next to him now.  
  
"Well, shall we work on Potions until the game?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
It did not take long. There were still a few hours until the Quidditch match, and since Sev managed to relax enough to not feel like throwing up, he decided to ask now instead of during a noisy game.  
  
He hoped to the Gods that he looked halfway decent, that his hair was still straight and did not look too greasy, and that he did not look half as terrified as he felt.  
  
"Sonia?"  
  
"Hm?" she murmured as she looked up from her notes, her vivid blue eyes returning his gaze - certainly steadier than his.  
  
"Would you go to the Valentine's Dance with me?" he quavered softly.  
  
Her mouth flew open, which was followed by a quick shutting of it and a rolling of her eyes in disgust.  
  
Sev felt his face redden - the simple action caused his entire soul and being to crash within his body, squeezing his heart, stomach, and lungs in a vice-like grip of shame and loathing.  
  
"I do hope you're joking, Severus," she remarked. "You're a brilliant person, but anything more than being study partners is out of the question."  
  
Sev felt his shame and humiliation loom over him and suffocate his throat and lungs. [Gods, Gods, Gods! Why am I so freaking stupid - of course she's too beautiful to want to be with a slimy, greasy, nasty, ugly, useless mess like me!]  
  
He had to leave. His stomach was threatening to strangle him. Sev got up without a word, his face in a cold mask of indifference, and he left the library.  
  
Unbeknownst to him, four individuals in Gryffindor robes had been listening at another table. They looked up at each other, grinned, and shut their books, getting up to follow Snivellus to wherever he was going to cry himself sick.  
  
It was too good to pass up!  
  
----------  
  
It was just before the game and the Marauders were being extra dorky in the hallways. Sirius Black and James Potter seemed to be intolerably chipper and obnoxious while Peter Pettigrew seemed to giggle himself into hysterics.  
  
Remus Lupin was the only one who seemed subdued. He scanned the halls, trying to locate Martis in the mass of students waiting to go out to the Quidditch stands. Guilt pounded in his veins, wondering how Miss Britomartis would react to what they had done to Snape.  
  
Gods, he wished he could control James and Sirius to SOME extent! He mentally whipped himself for being a lump ... and he was never going to tell anyone that he purposefully did not keep a lookout for Sartoris while the others were tormenting Snape in the Potions lab.  
  
[Jerkwads], he thought as Black and Potter messed each other's hair up and grinned like monkeys. [There goes the Truce completely up in smoke.]  
  
He pulled away from them, seeing Martis perched on one of the staircases. Her Slytherin green and silver scarf was wrapped around her neck, making her quite cute with the twin-braids.  
  
Lupin rushed up the stairs to her -  
  
But Pettigrew opened his big mouth and shouted: "HEY, GUYS! STELLAMARIS DUMPED SNIVELLUS! HE CRIED LIKE A BABY!"  
  
"Yeah!" Potter added. "Then we made sure he knew what a greasy git he was!"  
  
"The boils were a nice touch, Prongs," Black commented.  
  
Lupin was surprised to suddenly find himself slammed over a banister railing, his head hanging over the crowd of students below. Martis' rage- filled face filled his vision.  
  
"WHERE IS HE, YOU SON OF A BITCH?!?!"  
  
"Potions lab," Lupin answered quietly, quailing under her fury. "Sartoris caught them - "  
  
She threw him down the stairs and thundered down after him, running all the way to the Potions classroom.  
  
Lupin groaned as he came to a stop on a lower landing, checking for broken bones.  
  
"Is it too late to mention I really didn't do anything?"  
  
----------  
  
Martis slammed open the door to Professor Sartoris' office. "Where is he?" she cried. "Those [CENSORED] [CENSORED] [CENSORED] hurt my Snips - I mean Severus!"  
  
Sartoris raised an eyebrow. He had heard the other teachers talk about this development between his best Potions student and the Slytherin Beater, but he had not seen it in action himself.  
  
But there it was in his office - the girl was crying, angry, and on the warpath.  
  
Perhaps the Dark Lord would reconsider adding her to the fold? The rage and darkness within this 'failed experiment' was amazing. Provided it was pointed in the ... right direction...  
  
He dismissed that thought as wishful thinking. This was righteous fury, not random rage. It would extinguish itself only against its target, not lash out by chance.  
  
Damn. However, it was worth keeping an eye on her in this respect.  
  
"He left the classroom nearly a half-hour ago, Miss Vox. Where he is now, I do not know."  
  
"I'm going to KILL them!" she shrieked. "Once I find him and make sure he's safe, I'm going to find those bastards, grip 'them', and RIP THEM OFF!"  
  
She stalked out of the office and classroom, slamming both doors hard enough that the sound waves made the shelves full of glass bottles rattle.  
  
Yes, too bad it is only righteous fury. She could be quite scary.  
  
----------  
  
Sev huddled in the Conversation Room, wishing it were even smaller, enclosing him and finally squeezing him to death to get rid of the pain and humiliation and shame of this morning.  
  
He could not face her again. He could not leave here, ever. Those jackass Marauders never had been through pain like this.  
  
[Stupid, stupid, useless, ugly. Why do you even think you're worth it?]  
  
Sonia had only been using him. All the time they had spent together, at least ninety-percent of it was doing class work together. The other ten- percent was her ... was her trying to keep his interest in helping her by pretending to be friends. PRETENDING. Gods, was he stupid!  
  
[Well, what else would you be used for? Do you honestly think there is a snowball's chance in Hell that any girl would want you?? Ugly, worthless, greasy, skinny, and nasty!]  
  
"Severus!" a girl's voice yelled through the crawl hole and down the spiral stairway. "Severus, I'm coming up - please be there!"  
  
Martis.  
  
[Oh, Gods, oh no! I can't let her see me!]  
  
Sev looked around, praying to find an escape route, but his only option seemed to be breaking the stained glass above his head and climbing out.  
  
He pulled himself into a tighter ball, draping Evan's robe around his body to hide.  
  
"Severus - " Martis' voice choked as he felt her enter the small room.  
  
"Go away," he moaned.  
  
"Oh, Great Mother," she breathed, reaching for him. "Please - "  
  
Sev raised his wand in her face. "GO AWAY!" he hissed. "Go away! I don't need anyone! Let me die in misery! You're not getting anywhere near me!"  
  
"I need to know if you're all right - "  
  
"No, I am NOT [CENSORED] all right! Stellamaris has been leading me on just to do her [CENSORED] homework, the [CENSORED] Marauders ganged up on me and attacked me just like they [CENSORED] used to, and all you ever do anymore is yell at me for being a [CENSORED] idiot! Get the [CENSORED] away from me before I turn you into a [CENSORED] roach and stomp on you!"  
  
"No! I'm not leaving you!"  
  
He pointed his wand and opened his mouth.  
  
Martis broke into sobs, her hands flying to her face and knocking her sunglasses off. Her cries ripped through his anger, slamming against the darkness welling up in his body. He gazed at her in horror, her face contorted in grief and fear as tears streamed down her face and over her hands.  
  
Sev threw his wand aside, making a sound of disgust as he did so. "Stop it. I couldn't do it, anyway. And why are you up here? Come to tell me what a stupid idiot male I am?"  
  
She wiped her eyes with her robe sleeves, hiccupping. "Those jerks were bragging about what they did to you in the Potions lab. I wanted to kill them right there but I had to find you first."  
  
"Did they mention WHY they attacked me in the first place? Like the fact that I stupidly asked Stellamaris to the dance and she turned me down - not only telling me she thought of me as nothing more but a study partner but that she rolled her eyes in disgust?? Those jackasses couldn't pass up something like that!"  
  
Martis crawled closer to him. "Great Mother, Severus - "  
  
"That didn't hurt as much as her rolling her eyes like that. I'm used to those wild animals. It - it - it was her that I couldn't handle!" He lowered his face to his knees and wept. "Why in the Seven Realms of Hell did I think I had ANY chance?! I should stick to my books and potions and lessons and not worry about that sort of thing! Greasy, ugly, stupid Snivellus Snape is not meant for anything normal!"  
  
Martis gently touched his hair, smoothing it back from around his face. "What the Avernus is normal around here, anyway? You're just not meant for this crowd. I was scared to death that this would happen - why do you think I was so against it? I didn't want you hurt by that cow."  
  
"Right, as always. Freaking RIGHT as always!" Sev looked up at her, tears trailing down his face. She took her hand away. "I have absolutely NO idea what's going on half the time! I don't have the same ... whatever it's called - references - as everyone else! Instead of explaining all this crap to me, my father spent that time beating me half to death! The only example of women I ever knew was my cowering, apologetic mother! How was I supposed to learn anything normal??" He angrily wiped tears from his face with his hand. "I wasn't meant to! You're more normal than me - so why are you even around??"  
  
Martis' mouth opened, automatically replying with, "Because that's the way it is and I won't have it any other way."  
  
Sev stared at her. "You don't know what it's like."  
  
"No. My parents just abandoned me is all. Maybe that's why I cling to you like some stupid little kid, because I don't want to lose you, too."  
  
He cracked a grim smile. "We're just messed up people."  
  
Martis smirked. "Damaged for sure." She reached across and enclosed her fingers over his. He squeezed her hand hard in return. "Listen to me, Severus Snape, we're the only two that COULD understand each other in this madhouse. That's why we've stuck together all this time. We don't abandon the other, we don't hurt the other, and we don't use the other. I trust you with my life and everything that entails."  
  
He covered his eyes with his other hand. "That's what makes me mad - I know I trust you with my life. I promised myself never to trust anybody, and then you come along and ... "He pulled his hand away form his face and bit his lip. "If you leave me, I will die. I'm a bloody coward. I need you too much."  
  
"I'm not leaving," she stated. "I'm sticking with you the rest of our years here, then you're coming to Crete with me. We'll get you away from your nasty father and the idiot Gryffies and I'm going with you wherever you decide to go."  
  
Sev felt tears at the back of his throat. "Really?" he asked softly.  
  
"It's Severus and Britomartis all the way or bust." She smiled ruefully. "Through Sirius Prat and his worshippers, through nasty girlfriends or boyfriends, through monster parents, and through anything else life offers. No matter what, we're always protecting the other's back."  
  
Sev burst into tears and fell into her arms, feeling like he found the stable center of his life once again.  
  
Martis squeezed him tightly, rocking him back and forth and wiping his tears with the hem of her robe. Snips and Spirals were reunited again, all was right with the world.  
  
Except for a few loose ends wandering around Hogwarts.  
  
----------  
  
The Gryffindors won the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw, and they made sure everyone in the school knew it. The Gryffindor Victory Parties had to be slightly more subdued (McGonagall and Kettleburn - House Mistress and House Father - were not too hot on 'blow-outs'), but they were just as active as Slytherin's Victory Parties.  
  
Part of it involved James Potter and Sirius Black being carried into the Great Hall - and promptly being thrown to the ground as their carriers lost their footing and slipped on the floor just inside the hall.  
  
Gryffindors attempted to get up, then fell down, unable to find solid footing.  
  
Martis smirked to herself as she stood just out the doorway. The invisibly enchanted marbles worked beautifully. Now, to up the stakes...  
  
She flicked her wand and softly incanted, "Tarantallegra."  
  
Not only were the four Marauders slipping on the marbles with everyone else, they were also subjected to their legs dancing uncontrollably on the invisible marbles.  
  
The entire Great Hall (minus the teachers who were being dignified) burst into laughter.  
  
Her first job done, she smiled grimly to herself. Martis turned to the Ravenclaws entering the Great Hall, looking for her sisters' heads of blonde hair. The twins waved, indicating Sonia Stellamaris was directly in front of them.  
  
Martis flexed her fingers, approaching the Fourth-Year Ravenclaw. "Sonia Stellamaris?"  
  
Sonia looked up from her book. "Hm? Oh, Brit - Brit - Miss Vox. Yes?"  
  
The rest of the Ravenclaws knew what was going to happen, and began to clear the area, all barely edged in a large circle around Teasey and Spirals.  
  
"I told you," Martis said in a low voice. "That if you hurt him, you'll go down."  
  
"No, your exact words were 'I'll kill you'."  
  
"Same thing. But you know what?" She pushed her sunglasses up on her nose. "I discovered death is too kind and brief."  
  
Sonia reached for her wand, pulling it out to her side. "I told him I was just his study partner from the beginning. He's the one who misinterpreted."  
  
"Didn't go out of your way to clarify, did you? I didn't see you being reluctant to hold his hand or snuggle close during a Quidditch game. Even a busy player saw what was going on."  
  
She rolled her eyes. "Well, couldn't completely ignore him, could I?" She narrowed her eyes. "After all, you - the one he worshiped and adored - were being man-handled by a bunch of Quidditch players every morning and afternoon." (The cracking sound at this point was from Martis' knuckles squeezing into fists.) "This ... merely provided me an opportunity to ask for help." Her voice dropped. "After all, no one could get close to him while you were around."  
  
"Why don't you just admit it, Stellamaris," Martis stated coldly. "You're a potions-moron. You hooked up with Snips because he was the best Potions student in the whole entire school. It would be embarrassing for you - a highly respected 'Pureblood' Ravenclaw - to be completely stupid in one subject, wouldn't it?"  
  
Sonia snorted. "Yes - that's right. I'm terrible at Potions. Admittedly, not as bad as your sister Adonia. At least my work doesn't talk back and tell me how bad I am."  
  
At one side of the circle, Artemisia and Phaedra had to hold Adonia back to keep her from crashing into their Baby Sister's fight.  
  
"Brilliant how you managed to hold out for three and a half years before finally admitting that it was beyond you, though," Martis continued in a measured voice. "Too bad the one person who could 'trickle down' his brilliance to you was Severus Snape, the backward Slytherin who is too much of a gentleman to believe girls can be vile and nasty just to get ahead. You would have made an excellent Slytherin." Martis smirked in a lurid manner. "Or just a common prostitute."  
  
Sonia snarled, raising her wand. "Apologize, you barbaric snake-charmer!"  
  
"No."  
  
As Sonia began to swish, her flick was interrupted by a solid right hook to her jaw, sending her spiraling to the floor.  
  
A polite smattering of applause was punctuated by several cries of approval from many of the Ravenclaw girls. Martis' mouth remained in a thin neutral line as she walked into the Great Hall, swishing the invisible marbles aside with her wand before reaching her seat and sitting next to Sev.  
  
"Where were you?" Sev asked. "You missed the Marauders getting hexed ... " He stared at her as she began to spoon barley stew into her bowl. "Spirals, you didn't ...?"  
  
"Did you see me?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then don't make any accusations."  
  
Nurse Pomfrey and Professor Flitwick hurried down the rows of tables to the antechamber outside of the Great Hall. As Pomfrey passed, they overheard her muttering, " ... Stellamaris with a broken jaw, who would have ever thought her the type ... "  
  
Sev turned back to Martis. "Britomartis ... ??"  
  
"Pass the oat bread, would you, Snips?" she asked, ignoring his look of horror. He hesitantly handed a roll to her as she dug in.  
  
"Spirals, did you - ?"  
  
"Again: did you see me?"  
  
He shook his head. "No."  
  
"There you go again." She ate a little stew, then unceremoniously raised her other hand and casually poked his shoulder. "Bother."  
  
Sev sat silently for a moment, then poked her shoulder in return and said, "Bother."  
  
She grinned. "Snips and Spirals Forever?"  
  
"Eternally." He turned back to his dinner, ignoring the yells of the Marauders as they danced their way to the hospital wing.  
  
-End-


End file.
